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AIN    ROLLAND 


71 


nd 


J-CHRISTOPHE 


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Q  ^^=1    YouxGj  and  others. 


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PUBLISHED    BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COiVPANY 

19  West  44th  Street  New  York 


ROMAIN   HOLLAND 

Whether  the  curiosity  about  "  people  who 
have  done  things "  hints  of  a  weakness  for 
gossip  or  indicates  the  capacity  for  hero  wor- 
ship which  is  said  to  be  a  characteristic  of 
noble  minds,  it  will  find  ample  and  delightful 
gratification  in  the  biography  of  Romain  Hol- 
land. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  hear  from  Romain 
Rolland  himself  the  genesis  of  a  book  that  has 
stirred  two  continents.  While  he  was  in  Rome, 
ten  years  before  the  first  volume  appeared, 
he  conceived  the  idea  of  the  whole  book,  planned 
the  chapters,  and  entirely  composed  a  great 
part  of  the  volumes  v.hich  are  yet  to  be  pub- 
lished. "...  I  was  isolated,  stifling  like  so 
many  others  in  France  in  a  world  of  moral 
enmity.  I  wished  to  breathe,  I  wished  to  react 
against  an  unhealthy  civilization,  against  opinion 
corrupted  by  a  false  minority.  I  wished  to  say 
to  this  minority :  '  You  lie !  you  do  not  represent 
France.'  For  this  I  needed  a  hero  with  clear 
vision  and  a  pure  heart,  whose  soul  was  un- 
sullied enough  to  give  him  the  right  to  speak 
and  whose  voice  was  strong  enough  to  make 
itself  heard.  I  built  this  hero  patiently.  Be- 
fore deciding  to  write  the  first  line  of  my 
book  I  carried  it  within  me  for  years;  Chris- 
tophe  did  not  start  on  his  journey  until  I 
had  seen  his  road  to  the  end.   ..." 

And  in  Romain  Rolland's  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion   "  Is    Jean-Christophe    a   novel    or    is    it    a 


Romain  Holland  3 

biography?"  he  defines  succinctly  his  attitude 
to  his  book.  "  It  is  clear,"  he  says  in  a  preface 
to  one  of  the  books  of  "  Jean-Christophe  in 
Paris,"  "  that  I  have  never  had  the  pretension 
to  write  a  novel.  .  .  .  What  then  is  this  book? 
A  poem?  Why  do  you  need  a  name?  When 
you  see  a  man,  do  you  ask  him  is  he  a  novel 
or  a  poem?  This  is  a  man  that  I  have  made. 
The  life  of  man  is  not  shut  up  in  the  narrow 
limits  of  literary  form.  It  is  a  law  in  itself 
and  each  life  has  its  own  law.  Some  lives  are 
like  tranquil  lakes  .  .  .  others  are  fruitful 
plains.  .  .  .  Jean-Christophe  has  always  seemed 
to  me  a  river." 

The  above  and  what  follows  is  from  the 
modest  "  Introduction,"  Jean  Bonnerot  has  pro- 
vided for  a  little  volume  of  extracts  in  French 
from  Professor  Holland's  works.  In  this  he 
not  only  gives  all  sorts  of  interesting  informa- 
tion about  Romain  Holland's  life,  but  in  apt 
quotations  tells  us  more  about  the  inspiration 
and  the  methods  of  Romain  Holland's  work 
and  the  author's  own  attitude  to  it,  than  we 
could  learn  from  volumes  of  anecdote  or  critical 
analysis.  "...  My  state  of  mind,"  Romain 
Holland  writes  to  a  friend,  "  is  always  that 
of  a  musician,  not  of  a  painter.  At  first,  I 
conceive  like  a  nebulous  musical  impression  the 
whole  of  a  work,  then  the  principal  motives, 
and,  above  all,  the  rhytiim,  not  so  much  of 
isolated  phrases  as  the  sequence  of  the  volumes 
in  relation  to  the  whole,  the  chapters  in  the 
volumes,  and  the  paragraphs  in  the  chapters.'' 

Romain  Holland  is  French  on  both  sides  of 


2030284 


Romain  Rolland 


the  house.  On  his  father's  side  he  comes  of  a 
family  of  notaries;  his  mother's  family  \vere 
magistrates  and  lawyers.  He  was  born  in 
Clamecy,  Januarj^  29th,  1866,  and  received  his 
early  education  from  the  schools  there,  and 
his  first  lessons  in  music  from  his  mother. 
His  parents  destined  him  for  the  Polytechnic 
School,  but  he  wished  to  devote  himself  to 
music,  and  in  1886  he  entered  the  Ecole  Normale 
in  Paris.  Here  he  first  became  acquainted  with 
the  works  of  Wagner  and  of  Tolstoy,  the  two 
men  who,  he  says,  with  Shakespeare,  have  had 
the  greatest  formative  influence  upon  him.  He 
is  wholly  in  sympathy  with  Wagner's  theories 
of  music  and  with  Tolstoy's  ethical  ideals,  and 
his  play,  "  Orsino,"  written  while  he  was  at  the 
French  School  in  Rome,  and  which  narrowly 
escaped  production  at  the  Comedie  Fran^aise, 
is  based  upon  Shakespeare's  methods. 

A  humbler  influence  may  be  traced  to  his 
great-grandfather  on  the  paternal  side,  who 
was  an  ardent  revolutionist  and  had  an  abso- 
lute mania  for  writing  down  every  day  what 
he  read,  heard,  said,  ate,  and  did.  Almost  the 
whole  of  this  immense  journal  was  burned  ex- 
cept some  fragments  recounting  the  events  of 
July  14th,  1789,  in  Paris,  where  the  old  man 
happened  to  be  on  the  return  of  the  victorious 
people;  but  it  is  doubtless  the  origin  of  Olivier's 
journal  in  "  Jean-Christophe  in  Paris,"  and 
more  than  one  rejoinder  and  reflection  in  Ro- 
main Rolland's  play  "  I  Juillet "  were  drawn 
from  the  dust  and  shadow  of  these  family 
papers. 


Romain  Holland 


In  August,  1895,  a  year  after  his  return 
from  Rome  to  the  Ecole  Normale,  he  married. 
A  little  later  he  was  sent  to  Italy  on  an  official 
mission,  and  while  there  he  collected  the  ma- 
terial for  his  thesis,  the  "  Origins  of  the  Mod- 
ern Lyric  Theater;  a  History  of  Opera  in 
Europe  before  Lulli  and  Scarlatti,"  which  was 
accepted  by  the  Sorbonne  in  1895.  In  1897  he 
was  appointed  to  a  professorship,  the  History 
of  Art,  in  the  Higher  ficole  Xormale,  and  in 
1903,  at  the  time  the  Ecole  Xormale  was  re- 
organized and  its  professors  and  pupils  were 
transplanted  to  the  Sorbonne,  the  course  in  the 
History  of  Art,  which  he  had  taught  since 
1897,  became  a  course  in  the  History  of  Music. 
The  most  interesting  account  of  the  years  of 
his  professorship  and  the  dangers  and  difficul- 
ties of  university  life  is  given  in  Jean-Chris- 
tophe's   talks  with   Olivier. 

From  1898  to  190;:?,  was  the  heroic  period 
of  Romain  Rolland's  life.  In  1898  the  Theatre 
de  rCEuvre  produced  "  Aert,"  a  play  in  three 
acts,  and  from  this  day  "the  life  of  Romain 
RoUand  mingles  so  profoundly  with  his  work 
that  the  former  has  no  other  aim,  no  other 
reason  for  being."  He  determined  to  write  a 
dramatic  commentary  on  the  French  Revolu- 
tion— a  sort  of  epic  comprising  a  decade  of 
drama.  These  plays,  each  complete  in  itself, 
taken  as  a  whole  are  to  be  separate  acts  of  the 
Drama  of  the  Revolution. 

Professor,  biographer,  musical  critic  on  one 
important  review  and  founder  of  another,  play- 
wright and  novelist,  the  dream  and  ambition  of 


Romain  Rolland 


Romain  Rolland's  life  is  to  establish  a  People's 
Theater,  which  shall  express  their  aims,  their 
ideals  and  their  wrongs,  and  set  forth  their 
obligations  and  their  opportunities.  And  it  is 
interesting,  and  amazing,  to  learn  that  Monsieur 
Bonnerot  considers  that  "  Jean-Christophe  "^ 
in  itself  an  achievement  of  magnitude — "  ex- 
plains, supplements,  completes,  the  People's 
Theater,  It  is  addressed  to  all  without  dis- 
tinction of  class  or  origin;  it  is  concerned  with 
the  hatreds,  the  joys,  the  sorrows,  in  which  all 
are  equal.  It  is  a  different  thing  from  an  in- 
tellectual book  written  for  the  entertainment 
of  the  salon  or  to  achieve  a  vain  success.  Jean- 
Christophe  says"  aloud  what  others  are  afraid 
to  think.   ..." 

In  between  the  times  of  his  multifarious  in- 
terests and  accomplishments  Romain  Rolland 
published  and  "  dedicated  to  civilization "  a 
drama  on  the  English  issues  in  the  Transvaal, 
"  The  Time  Will  Come,"  and  Monsieur  Bonne- 
rot  tells  us  that  he  has  put  into  the  mouth  of 
one  of  Lord  Clifford's  prisoners  the  dominating 
principle  of  his  own  life:  "All  injustice  is 
my  enemy.  .  .  .  My  country  is  everywhere 
liberty  is  violated." 


Edwin  Francis  Edgett  in  the  Boston  Tran- 
script, Decenmber   14,  1910. 

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE 

The   Story  of  a  Temperament  from   Ixfaxcy 
TO  Manhood 

Jean-Christophe:  Dawn,  Morning,  Youth,  Re- 
volt. By  Romain  Holland,  Translated  In'  Gil- 
bert Cannan.     New  York:  Henry  Holt  &  Co. 

The  six  hundred  pages  of  "  Jean-Christophe  " 
merely  carry  us  across  the  threshold  of  its 
hero's  life.  One  volume  has  been  made  of  the 
four  volumes  in  which  the  original  French  ver- 
sion of  the  story  appeared,  and  there  are  to 
come,  we  believe,  two  more  in  Mr.  Cannan's 
highly  commendable  and  eifective  translation. 
In  Paris  ten  yellow-covered  paper  books  will  be 
necessary  to  bring  Jean-Christophe's  multitudi- 
nous adventures  before  the  eager  French  public. 
In  these  first  six  hundred  pages  we  accompany 
Jean-Christophe  Krafft  through  the  four  early 
stages  of  his  career,  and  as  he  is  only  twenty 
when  the  last  word  is  said,  it  may  easily  be 
seen  that  his  life  and  M.  Rolland's  record  of 
it  is  very   full. 

In  "  Jean-Christophe  "  the  novelist  begins  at 
the  beginning,  at  the  very  moment  when  the 
new-born  child  is  stirring  in  his  cradle.  "  The 
child  wakes  and  cries,  and  his  eyes  are  troubled. 
Oh !   how   terrible !     The   darkness,   the   sudden 


8  Romain  Rolland 

flash  of  the  lamp,  the  hallucinations  of  a  mind 
as  yet  hardly  detached  from  chaos,  the  stifling, 
roaring  night  in  which  it  is  enveloped,  the 
illimitable  gloom  from  which,  like  blinding 
shafts  of  light,  there  emerge  acute  sensations, 
sorrows,  phantoms — those  enormous  faces  lean- 
ing over  him,  those  eyes  that  pierce  through 
him,  penetrating,  are  beyond  his  comprehen- 
sion !  He  has  not  the  strength  to  cry  out, 
terror  holds  him  motionless,  with  eyes  and 
mouth  wide  open  and  he  rattles  in  his  throat. 
His  large  head,  that  seems  to  have  swollen 
up,  is  wrinkled  with  the  grotesque  and  lamen- 
table grimaces  that  he  makes,  the  skin  of  his 
face  and  hands  is  brown  and  purple,  and 
spotted  with  yellow."  This  is  Jean-Christophe 
as  we  first  see  him,  and  through  twenty  years 
of  infancy  and  youth  he  pursues  an  erratic 
course  in  which  his  ideals  are  paramount  and 
continuously  at  odds  with  common  sense. 

Coming  of  artistic  parentage,  he  could,  per- 
haps, be  none  other  than  he  is.  His  father 
and  grandfather  were  musicians,  both  known 
to  all  the  musicians  of  the  country  from 
Cologne  to  Mannheim,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
birth  they  were  living  in  a  little  town  on  the 
Rhine,  not  far  from  the  Belgian  frontier.  It 
is  there  that  the  first  twenty  years  of  Jean- 
Christophe's  life  are  spent,  and  from  end  to 
end  of  this  first  volume  of  his  history  we  rarely 
leave  its  borders.  Thither  the  elder  Krafi^t  had 
come  in  boyhood,  and  there  he  dwelt  till  the 
end  of  his  days.  Jean-Christophe's  mother  was 
of  the  servant  class,  and  the  old  Jean  Michel 


J  ean-Christophe 


had  been  profoundly  humiliated  by  his  son's 
marriage,  "  for  he  had  built  great  hopes  upon 
Melchior;  he  had  wished  to  make  him  the  dis- 
tinguished man  which  he  had  failed  to  make 
himself."  All  his  ambitions,  he  felt,  were  de- 
stroyed by  this  freak  of  his  son.  "  He  had 
stormed  at  first,  and  showered  curses  upon 
Melchior  and  Louisa.  But,  being  a  good- 
natured  creature,  he  forgave  his  daughter-in- 
law  when  he  learned  to  know  her  better;  and 
even  came  by  a  paternal  affection  for  her, 
which  showed  itself  for  the  most  part  in  snubs." 
It  is  to  show  the  contrast  between  the  ideal 
and  the  real,  between  the  efforts  of  a  genius 
to  keep  his  face  to  the  future  and  the  repress- 
ing force  of  a  community  that  looks  inevitably 
backward,  that  M.  Holland  has  undertaken  to 
give  us  this  finely  particularized  record  and 
closely  analyzed  study  of  the  progress  of  a 
youthful  life  and  intellect.  That  his  scenes  and 
characters  are  German  appears  to  have  no 
national  significance,  for  the  novelist  is  not 
satirizing  a  people  or  a  community.  He  is 
merely  showing  us  a  characteristic  section  of 
humanity,  and  it  is  mere  chance  that  it  happens 
to  be  German.  "  More  than  anywhere  else 
there  reigned  the  distrust,  so  innate  in  the 
German  people,  of  anything  new,  the  sort  of 
laziness  in  feeling  anything  true  or  powerful 
which  has  not  been  pondered  and  digested  by 
several  generations."  Of  the  French,  he  will 
doubtless  have  no  less  to  say  when  Jean- 
Christophe  begins,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  his 
life  in  Paris. 


10  Romain  Rolland 

Varied  is  the  course  of  Jean-Christophe 
through  these  twenty  years,  and  unreserved 
is  M.  Rolland  in  his  record  and  commentary. 
While  scarcely  more  than  a  baby,  he  is  taught 
the  piano  by  Melchior,  who  sees  glorious  visions 
of  a  great  future  for  the  boy  and  an  equally 
auspicious  old  age  for  himself  as  the  father 
of  a  prodigy  and  a  genius.  But  drink  soon 
ends  him,  and  the  boy  goes  his  own  way — which 
is  the  way  of  an  irresponsible  prodigy  and  a 
genius.  He  will  brook  no  opposition,  he  will 
endure  no  controverting  of  his  own  judgment, 
and  after  quickly  rising  in  the  public  esteem  as 
a  composer  and  teacher,  he  makes  an  equally 
rapid  fall.  All  his  doings,  his  motives,  his 
emotions,  are  disclosed  by  the  novelist.  We 
read  of  his  love  affairs,  both  platonic  and  erotic. 
We  are  told  of  his  few  triumphs  and  many 
failures  as  a  musician,  and  there  is  scarcely  a 
moment  when  we  are  unable  to  read  his  very 
soul.  And  even  though  to  the  placid  mind 
which  takes  life  as  it  finds  it,  his  actions  may 
seem  the  height  of  folly,  we  see  in  them  nothing 
but  what  is  as  inevitable  as  it  is  frequently 
inexplicable.  His  is  a  character  that  we  need 
not  explain,  and  for  which  we  need  seek  no 
explanation.  He  is  the  type  of  the  irresponsi- 
ble artist  whose  conduct  in  all  its  extremes  is 
due  to  an  unquenchable  egotism  that,  while  it 
may  be  preposterous,  is  at  the  same  time  par- 
donable. He  lives  in  a  world  for  which  he  is 
unsuited,  and  he  beats  his  feeble  hands  against 
its  bars  in  a  futile  attempt  to  escape  to  his 
Utopia. 


Jean-Christophe  11 

For  no  moment  does  the  novelist  lapse  from 
his  consistent  view  of  Jean-Christophe's  char- 
acter. While  he  offers  us  at  times  his  own 
opinions,  he  does  not  obtrude  them,  and  they 
are  fused  into  the  story.  Despite  its  length, 
the  narrative  does  not  seem  unduly  long.  Six 
hundred  pages  is  a  small  amount  of  space  over 
which  to  spread  the  events  of  twenty  years, 
especially  when  they  deal  with  a  human  being 
whose  mind  and  soul  were  filled  with  a  pent-up 
energy.  From  year  to  year  the  story  moves 
at  a  rapid  pace.  It  never  lags.  It  moves  along 
as  time  moves,  speedily  and  irrevocably.  It 
brings  to  life  one  character  after  another,  oiu 
and  young,  men  and  women,  as  they  cross  the 
path  of  Jean-Christophe,  and  always  we  see 
them  as  he  sees  them,  or  as  they  should  be  seen 
in  relation  to  him.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  "  Jean-Christophe  ''  is  the  most  momentous 
novel  that  has  come  to  us  from  France,  or 
from  any  other  European  country,  in  a  decade. 
It  may  not  seem  immediately  great,  but  it  is 
unquestionably  important  and  significant  in  its 
presentation  to  us  of  the  mind  of  man  and  the 
soul  of  a  man. 


By  Francis  E.  Regal  in  the  Springfield  Be- 
pubUcan,   December  3,    1911. 

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE   IN  PARIS 

A  Masterpiece  or  a   New  Day 

Comments  upon  the  second  volume  of  the 
English  translation  of  Remain  Rolland's  great 
novel. 

We  are  to  account  no  man  happy  until  he 
is  dead;  on  the  same  principle  we  should  con- 
sider no  book  successful  till  it  is  finished.  Yet 
now  and  then  the  temptation  to  anticipate  is 
irresistible,  as  in  the  case  of  Romain  Rolland's 
huge  masterpiece,  "  Jean-Christophe,"  the  first 
volume  of  which,  comprising  four  of  the  ten 
French  volumes,  was  published  early  in  the 
year  by  Henry  Holt  &  Co.  The  high  estimate 
then  put  upon  it  remains  unaltered  by  a  read- 
ing of  the  second  volume  in  English,  issued 
this  fall  by  the  same  publishers,  in  which  the 
German  hero  comes  to  Paris  and  sees  French 
life  as  searchingly  as  in  the  first  volume  he 
had  seen  the  life  of  Germany.  No  work  of 
fiction  published  in  our  day  has  exerted  a 
greater  influence  on  thoughtful  readers,  and 
perhaps  none  has  been  more  variously  judged 
by  critics. 

This  discrepancy,  in  itself  a  mark  of  extraor- 
dinary quality,  is  easily  to  be  explained.  The 
reviewers  who  have  treated  it  like  an  ordinary 


Jeuri-Christophe  in  Paris  13 

novel  of  the  day,  applying  the  usual  canons 
as  to  unity,  action,  etc.,  have  naturally  found 
it  deficient.  Those  who  have  seen  that  it  is 
only  in  the  technical  sense  a  novel,  and  have 
treated  it  as  the  most  profound  and  compre- 
hensive criticism  of  modern  life  which  has  yet 
been  vouchsafed,  have  wasted  no  time  in  con- 
sidering its  defects  as  a  novel.  It  is  not  to 
be  judged  by  the  ordinary  rules,  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  no  ordinary  novel.  It  is  one  of  those 
fundamental  books  that  stand  apart,  that  con- 
tain the  seeds  of  new  life.  Whether  the  seeds 
sprout  depends,  of  course,  on  the  trend  of  his- 
tory— great  books  may  sink  and  be  forgotten 
because  they  appear  on  the  slope  of  a  descend- 
ing wave  in  which  they  are  swamped.  But  if 
we  are  at  the  beginning  of  a  great  upward 
sweep,  a  cyclic  movement  in  art  and  letters, 
"  Jean-Christophe "  will  be  reckoned  one  of 
the  epochal  books  of  our  time,  not  less  im- 
portant than  the  early  masterpieces  of  the 
romantic  revival  in  the  eighteenth  century.  It 
is  a  work  too  big  to  be  measured  save  by  an 
imaginative  perspective  view. 

Nor  is  it  a  book  for  all  readers;  that  should 
be  made  clear  at  the  outset  to  avoid  disappoint- 
ment. It  does  not,  it  is  true,  require  of  the 
reader  a  technical  knowledge  of  music,  though 
the  hero  is  a  great  musician,  modeled  a  little 
on  Beethoven,  a  very  little  on  Wagner,  and 
somewhat  on  Hugo  Wolf,  whiV?  bis  ideas  are 
necessarily  largely  the  ideas  of  Rolland.  But 
the  reader  does  need,  in  order  to  appreciate 
the   critical    discussion    ''«   which   a   large   part 


li  Romaiii  RoUand 

of  this  inordinately  long  book  is  devoted,  some 
familiarity  with  the  conditions  and  problems 
of  modern  artistic  and  intellectual  life.  From 
the  book  itself  one  may  understand  much  of 
the  throes  through  \vhich  the  Europe  of  to-day 
is  passing,  but  to  appreciate  fully  the  keen 
analysis  of  contemporary  art,  music,  letters, 
and  social  life,  a  wide  knowledge  is  required. 
Yet  it  is  by  no  means  a  book  for  the  few  alone; 
many  readers  will  find  it  stimulating  and  sug- 
gestive, even  though  they  miss  the  point  of 
many  of  the  allusions.  The  author  is  a  dis- 
ciple, to  some  extent,  of  Tolstoi,  and  has 
written  an  admirable  book  on  the  great  Rus- 
sian teacher.  Something  of  the  Tolstoian  spirit 
appears  in  "  Jean-Christophe,"  specially  in  its 
insistence  on  ethical  ideals  in  art  and  literature 
and  the  contempt  shown  for  the  shallow  techni- 
cal skill  with  which  Europe  has  for  a  genera- 
tion been  surfeited. 

The  scope  of  this  second  volume  of  473  pages 
is  quite  as  comprehensive  as  that  of  the  first. 
In  that  we  were  shown  the  infancy,  childhood, 
youth,  and  early  career  of  a  great  genius,  a 
moody,  passionate,  exigent  soul,  chafing  at  the 
mediocrity  he  saw  triumphant  about  him,  dash- 
ing himself  hopelessly  against  the  walls  of  the 
Philistines.  We  took  leave  of  him  crossing  the 
French  frontier  a  fugitive  from  the  militarism 
which  has  devastated  the  land  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller.  In  this  new  volume  we  see  him  knock- 
ing at  the  doors  of  Paris,  and  the  book  is 
largely  concerned  with  the  shattering  of  the 
ideals    of   that    brilliant   capital    which   he   had 


Jean-Christophe  in  Paris         15 

formed  in  his  stuffy  German  provincial  town, 
and  with  his  search  for  the  real  France,  the 
France  that  has  been  a  lamp  to  the  world. 
He  finds  it  at  last,  and  the  real  France  as 
M.  Holland  pictures  it  is  curiously  different 
from  the  conventional  ideal  of  the  country. 

Paris,  where  Jean-Christophe  undergoes  hu- 
miliations much  like  those  of  Wagner,  who  had 
to  support  himself  by  arranging  operatic  airs 
for  the  cornet,  he  finds  exploited  by  foreigners 
— Jews,  Italians,  Germans,  Levantines,  South 
Americans.  The  arts  were  being  prostituted 
in  the  market-place;  sensuality,  obscenity,  deca- 
dence were  everywhere:  "The  more  closely  he 
examined  that  sort  of  art,  the  more  acutely 
he  became  aware  of  the  odor  which  from  the 
first  he  had  detected  faintly  in  the  beginning, 
then  more  strongly,  and  finally  it  was  suffocat- 
ing; the  odor  of  death.  Death;  it  was  every- 
where beneath  all  the  luxury  and  the  uproar." 
Jean-Christophe's  quest  is  for  the  hidden  life 
of  France,  the  sterling  qualities  hidden  by  the 
glitter  of  the  capital.  He  succeeds  at  last  by 
the  help  of  a  friend,  a  shy  young  French  poet, 
Olivier,  brother  of  the  French  governess,  An- 
toinette, whom  Jean-Christophe  had  encountered 
in  Germany,  and  whose  sad  history  constitutes 
a  pathetic  episode  in  this  second  volume. 
Secretly  she  had  loved  the  composer,  but 
Olivier  keeps  her  secret.  Through  him  Jean- 
Christophe  finally  divines  the  secret  of  the 
greatness  of  France,  and  finds  it  where  one 
would  least  look  for  it — not  in  academies  or 
salons  or  collective  scientific  undertakings,  but 


16  Romain  Rolland 

in  scattered  individuals.  So  far  from  being 
the  most  systematic  and  gregarious  of  nations, 
they  were  the  most  divided:  "There  was  no 
sort  of  mutual  interchange.  There  was  no 
unanimity  on  any .  subject  in  France,  except 
at  those  very  rare  moments  when  unanimity 
assumed  an  epidemic  character,  and,  as  a  rule, 
it  was  wrong,  for  it  was  morbid.  A  crazy 
individualism  predominated  in  every  kind  of 
French  activity;  in  scientific  research  as  well 
as  in  commerce,  for  it  prevented  business  men 
from  combining  and  organizing  ^\orking  agree- 
ments." All  this  is  most  unsettling  to  received 
opinion,  but  "Jean-Christophe"  is  nothing  if 
not  unsettling;  it  is  a  book  which  at  almost 
every  point  goes  behind  the  received  opinion. 
It  is  a  book  which  students  of  our  own  times, 
whether  they  like  it  or  not,  cannot  afford  to 
ignore. 


By  Waldo  R.  Browne  in  The  Dial,  March 
1,  1914 

A  review  of  the  completed  trilogy,  including 
Jeax-Christopiie:  Jourxey's  Exd 


A  GREAT  CONTEMPORARY  NOVEL 

The  first  of  the  three  volumes  containing 
"Jean-Christophe"  in  its  English  version  ap- 
peared during  the  winter  of  1910;  the  last, 
something  less  than  a  year  ago.  If  the  book 
bore  any  relation  to  the  generality  of  current 
fiction,  some  apology  for  dealing  with  it  so 
tardily  might  be  in  order.  But  when  one  has 
to  do  with  a  xcork  of  (jenius,  apologies  may  as 
well  be  dispensed  with.  Compared  with  the 
great  mass  of  current  novels,  "Jean-Christophe" 
is  as  an  oak-tree  rising  above  a  field  of  stimmer 
grass.  We  should  like  to  have  been  among  the 
earliest  to  proclaim  its  qualities;  that  privilege 
having  been  missed,  we  can  at  least  avoid  a 
place  among  the   tardiest. 

Notwithstanding  its  recognition  by  Mr.  Ed- 
mund Gosse  and  other  high  critical  authorities 
as  "the  first  great  novel  of  the  new  century," 
the  book  seems  as  yet  to  have  found  only  a 
small  fraction  of  its  destined  English  audience. 
Critical  superlatives  are  too  much  soiled  by 
ignoble  use  to  carry  much  force  nowadays;  and 
as  much  as  ever  in  the  past,  genius  is  still  left 
to  make  its  own  way  as  it  can.  No  doubt  the 
unusual    bulk    of    "Jean-Christophe"    has    de- 


18  Romain  RoIIand 

terred  many  possible  readers.  A  generation 
that  is  accustomed  to  considering  its  fiction, 
like  its  pills,  the  better  for  being  readily  bolted 
is  not  likely  to  look  with  favor  upon  a  novel  of 
seventeen  hundred  rather  closely  printed  pages. 
But  for  our  part,  we  should  be  glad  if  the 
three  volumes  had  been  multiplied  into  thirty. 
Indeed,  the  same  material, — the  same  wealth 
of  character,  the  same  reservoir  of  ideas, — 
might  well  have  served  a  less  rigorous  artist 
for  thirty  novels  instead  of  one.  Into  the  mak- 
ing of  "Jean-Christophe"  has  gone  the  greater 
part  of  its  author's  life.  The  French  original, 
in  ten  volumes,  occupied  nearly  a  decade  in  the 
publishing;  and  M.  Rolland  has  said  that  the 
book  was  in  conception  many  years  before  the 
first  page  was  written, — "Christophe  only  set 
out  on  his  journey  when  I  had  been  able  to  see 
the  end  of  it   for  him." 

"The  writers  of  to-day,"  says   Christophe  to 
his  friend   Olivier,  in  one  of  their  discussions, 

"Waste  their  energy  in  describing-  human  rari- 
ties, or  cases  that  are  common  enough  in  the 
abnormal  groups  of  men  and  women  living  on 
the  fringe  of  the  great  society  of  active,  healtliy 
human  beings.  Since  they  themselves  have  shut 
themselves  off  from  life,  leave  them  and  go 
where  there  are  men.  Show  the  life  of  every 
day  to  the  men  and  women  of  every  day:  that 
life  is  deeper  and  more  vast  than  the  sea.  The 
smallest  among  you  bears  the  infinite  in  his 
soul.  The  infinite  is  in  every  man  who  is  sim- 
ple enough  to  be  a  man,  in  the  lover,  in  the 
friend,  in  the  woman  who  pays  with  her  pangs 
for  the  radiant  glory  of  the  day  of  childbirth,  in 
every  man  and  every  woman  who  lives  in  ob- 
scure self-sacrifice   which  will  never  be  known 


Jean-Christophe :  Journey's  End  19 


to  another  soul:  it  is  the  very  river  of  life,  flow- 
ing from  one  to  another,  from  one  to  another, 
and  back  again  and  round.  .  .  .  "Write  the 
simple  life  of  one  of  these  simple  men.  write 
the  peaceful  epic  of  the  days  and  nights  fol- 
lowing, following  one  like  to  another,  and  yet  all 
different,  all  sons  of  the  same  mother,  from  the 
dawning  of  the  first  day  in  the  life  of  the  world. 
Write  it  simply,  as  simple  as  its  own  unfold- 
ing. Waste  no  thought  upon  the  word,  and  the 
letter,  and  the  subtle  vain  researches  in  which 
the  force  of  the  artists  of  to-day  is  turned  to 
naught.  You  are  addressing  all  men:  use  the 
language  of  all  men.  There  are  no  words  noble 
or  vulgar;  there  is  no  style  chaste  or  impure: 
there  are  only  words  and  styles  which  say  or 
do  not  say  exactly  what  they  have  to  say.  Be 
sound  and  thorough  in  all  you  do:  think  just 
what  you  think, — and  feel  just  what  you  feel. 
Let  the  rhythm  of  your  heart  prevail  in  your 
writings!     The  style  is  the  soul." 

This  is  M.  Rolland's  literary  creed,  and  out  of 
it  has  come  "Jean-Christophe."  There  is  noth- 
ing of  conventional  plot  in  the  book.  Its  con- 
necting thread  throughout  is  the  history  of  ? 
human  soul, — the  soul  of  Jean-Christophe  Kraft, 
native  of  Germany,  the  descendant  of  several 
generations  of  musicians  and  himself  destined 
to  be  the  greatest  musician  of  them  all.  In 
physique  and  will  he  does  not  belie  his  sur- 
name; but  his  is  the  strength  out  of  which 
comes  sweetness, — a  strength  that  carries  him 
unconquered,  though  not  unscathed,  through 
battle  with  all  the  forces  that  can  be  sent 
against  a  man's  spirit, — a  strength  that  in- 
spires and  invigorates  all  who  come  within  its 
influence.  Concerning  the  origin  of  his  book, 
M.  Rolland  has  written:   "I  was  stiflinar    .     .     . 


20  Rom  (tin  Roll  and 

in  a  hostile  moral  atmosphere,  I  wanted  to 
breathe,  I  wanted  to  react  against  a  sickly  civ- 
ilization. ...  I  needed  a  hero  of  pure  eyes 
and  pnre  heart,  with  a  soul  sufficiently  un- 
blemished to  have  the  right  to  speak,  and  M'ith 
a  voice  strong  enough  to  make  itself  heard." 
Such  a  hero  is  Jean-Christophe;  but  his  purity 
of  eye  and  heart  contains  no  trace  of  pharisa- 
ism.  He  is  a  creature  of  stormy  impulses  and 
emotions,  who  stumbles  and  blunders  as  fre- 
quently as  any,  yet  who  never  makes  terms  with 
the  enemy,  whether  within  or  without. 

But  the  book  as  a  whole  is  far  more  than  a 
biography  of  Jean-Christophe  Kraft.  It  is  an 
analysis,  a  synthesis,  a  criticism  of  present-day 
life  in  all  of  its  most  significant  phases.  It  is 
an  illuminating  estimate  of  European  culture, 
a  sane  and  penetrative  discussion  of  social  ten- 
dencies, an  inspiring  handbook  of  ethics,  a  pro- 
found and  eloquent  treatise  on  music, — and 
much  else  besides.  AVe  doubt  if  any  other 
writer  since  Tolstoy  has  been  so  successful  in 
clarifying  the  welter  of  our  contemporary  civ- 
ilization,— "beneath  the  chaos  of  facts  perceiv- 
ing the  little  undistinguished  gleam  which  re- 
veals the  progress  of  the  historv  of  the  human 
mind." 

Weavers,  all  of  us,  of  the  great  fabric  of 
humanity,  M-e  are  taken  for  a  moment  from  the 
tiny  segment  of  our  individual  labor,  and  the 
wide  tangle  of  loose  ends  which  shows  for  us 
as  the  collective  labor  of  our  generation,  and 
are  granted   a   glimpse  of  the  ordered   design 


Jean-Christophe:  Journey^ s  End  21 

that  is  slowly  taking  form  on  the  other  side 
of  the  fabric.  And  this,  in  our  opinion,  is  the 
noblest  ser\ice  that  literature  can  perform. 

"Jean-Christophe"  is  thus  before  all  else  an 
interjiretation  of  life,  a  "novel  of  ideas"  in  the 
truest  sense.  But  for  all  that,  its  chief  concern 
is  ^not  with  the  "intellectuals"  but  with  com- 
monest and  lowliest  humanity.  The  kingdom  it 
]iortrays  is  inherited  not  by  the  successful  and 
the  arrogant — the  so-called  strong  men  who  are 
held  up  so  generally  in  life  and  in  literature 
as  patterns  of  human  conduct, — but  always  by 
the  meek  and  the  poor  in  spirit.  Nothing  in 
the  book  is  more  typical  of  its  author's  spirit 
than   such   a   passage   as  this: 

"Christophe  felt  utterly  weary  of  the -fevered, 
sterile  world,  the  conflict  between  egoisms  and 
ideas,  the  little  groups  of  human  beings  deem- 
ing themselves  above  humanity,  the  ambitious, 
the  thinkers,  the  artists  who  think  themselves 
the  brain  of  the  world,  and  are  no  more  than  a 
haunting,  evil  dream.  And  all  his  love  went  out 
to  those  thousands  of  simple  souls,  of  every  na- 
tion, whose  lives  burn  away  in  silence,  pure 
flames  of  kindness,  faith,  and  sacrifice, — the 
heart  of  the  world." 

It  is  the  ambition  of  M.  Rolland's  art  to  help 
the  people  "to  live,  to  correct  their  errors,  to 
conquer  their  prejudices,  and  to  enlarge  from 
day  to  day  their  thoughts  and  their  hearts." 
Understanding  as  clearly  as  any  the  futility 
and  danger  of  many  "popular"  tendencies,  he 
yet  never  reacts  into  that  attitude  of  harsh 
intolerance  or  brutal  indifference  so  common 
among  the  intellectual  classes  of  to-day.     It  is 


22  Roma'in  Roll  and 

his  belief  that  the  individualist  who  cuts  him- 
self off  from  sjTnpathetic  contact  with  the  mass 
of  mankind  repudiates  thereby  the  first  law  of 
Christianity.  "If  any  man,"  says  M.  Holland, 
"would  see  the  living  God  face  to  face,  he 
must  seek  him,  not  in  the  empty  firmament  of 
his  own  brain,  but  in  the  love  of  men." 

As  in  every  great  work  of  art,  this  pervad- 
ing quality  of  humaneness  is  here  secondary 
only  to  the  quality  of  absolute  sincerity.  A 
love  of  truth  as  passionate  as  Ruskin's,  as  un- 
compromising as  Carlyle's,  g^ows  through  every 
page.  With  Teufelsdrockh,  Jean-Christophe 
never  fails  to  cry :  "Truth !  though  the  heavens 
crush  me  for  following  her:  no  Falsehood! 
though  a  whole  celestial  Lubberland  were  the 
price  of  Apostacy."  This  high  sincerity  could 
scarcely  fail  to  be  inherent  in  a  book  so  largely 
the  distillation  of  spiritual  experience,  so  little 
the  product  of  artifice.  The  M'ork  was  con- 
ceived, as  we  have  seen,  in  a  spirit  of  intense 
reaction  to  falsehood  and  cant.  Its  author  is 
one  who  has  evidently  known  the  acutest  mental 
and  physical  suffering,  but  who  yet  has  courage 
"to  look  anguish  in  the  face  and  venerate  it." 
In  a  day  when  there  is  so  widespread  a  ten- 
dency not  only  to  repudiate  the  moral  value 
of  suffering,  but  to  fasten  upon  it  a  definite 
stigma  of  shame,  such  a  courage  is  as  rare  as 
it  is  salutary. 

It  should  not  be  inferred  that  "Jean-Chris- 
tophe" is  any  the  less  appealing  and  readable 
as  a  book  of  fiction  because  of  the  higher  quali- 
ties  emphasized    in    the    foregoing, — though   of 


Jean-Christophe :  Journej/s  End  23 

course  the  book  could  never  interest  those  who 
are  content  with  the  sta])le  })roduct  of  our 
fiction-factories.  Even  should  the  cultivated 
reader  wish  to  skip  rather  freely,  in  the  residue 
he  will  find  a  wealth  of  rare  treasure.  We 
know  of  few  pages  in  literature  more  subtly 
and  tenderly  sympathetic  than  the  record  of 
Christophe's  early  cliildhood,  more  deeply  stirr- 
ing than  the  spiritual  battle  de})icted  in  "The 
Burning  Bush,"  more  poignantly  beautiful  than 
the  account  of  Christophe's  passing  in  the  final 
chapter.  And  what  a  wonderful  pageant  of 
human  character  moves  through  the  book, — 
what  a  gallery  of  vivid  and  varied  portraiture ! 
Who  that  has  come  to  know  them  w  ill  ever  for- 
get Jean  Michel,  Gottfried,  old  Schulz,  Olivier, 
Christophe  himself,  among  the  men;  Louisa, 
Sabine,  Antoinette,  Grazia,  among  the  women? 
In  conclusion,  we  shall  venture  the  statement 
that  with  this  work  M.  Holland  takes  his  place 
in  contemporary  literature  as  the  spiritual  and 
artistic  successor  of  Tolstoy.  He  becomes  the 
standard-bearer  around  whom  will  rally  the 
idealistic  forces  of  the  new  century.  More  pro- 
foundly than  any  other  yet  offered  by  this  cen- 
tury, the  gospel  he  has  given  us  M'ill  inspire  and 
direct  those  who  are  toiling  in  the  cause  of 
human  brotherhood, — "the  free  spirits  of  all 
nations  who  suifer,  fight,  and  will  prevail." 
That  he  assumes  no  authority,  and  claims  no 
followers,  only  makes  his  leadership  the  more 
secure.  He  would  have  us  understand  almost 
before  all  else  that  human  progress,  like  life 
itself,  is  not  a  smooth-flowing  development,  but 


24         Jea/n-Christophe  in  Paris 

a  series  of  metamorphoses  or  transmutations; 
that  each  generation  must  wage  its  own  battle 
for  its  own  truth,  and  then  without  bitterness 
give  place  to  a  younger  generation  which  per- 
chance will  carry  the  combat  to  a  far  different 
quarter  of  the  field.  To  fight  is  "the  great  duty; 
to  have  fought,  the  only  honor.  The  issue  is 
always  in  the  future;  the  hope  is  always  with 
the  new  generation.  In  no  other  way  can  we 
more  fittingly  take  leave  of  this  noble  book 
^han  in  the  words  of  its  author,  appended  as  a 
preface  *:o  the  final  volume: 

"I  have  written  the  tragedy  of  a  generation 
which  is  nearlng  its  end.  I  have  sought  to  con- 
ceal neither  its  vices  nor  its  virtues,  its 
profound  sadness,  its  chaotic  pride,  its  heroic 
efforts,  its  despondency  beneath  the  overwhelm- 
ing burden  of  a  superhuman  task,  the  burden  of 
the  whole  world,  the  reconstruction  of  the 
world's  morality,  its  esthetic  principles,  its 
faith,  the  forging  of  a  nev/  humanity. — Such 
Vi-e  have   been. 

"You  young  men,  you  men  of  to-day,  march 
over  us,  trample  us  under  your  feet,  and  press 
onward.      Be   ye   greater   and   happier   than   we. 

"For  myself,  I  bid  the  soul  that  was  mine 
farewell.  I  cast  it  from  me  like  an  empty  shell. 
Life  is  a  succession  of  deaths  and  resurrections 
We    must    die,    Christophe,    to    be    born    again." 

Jeajt-Christophe.  Dawn  —  Morning  —  Youth 
—Revolt. 
Commences  with  the  musician's  childhood, 
his  fears,  fancies,  and  troubles,  and  his  almost 
uncanny  musical  sense.  He  plays  before  the 
Grand  Duke  at  seven,  but  he  is  destined  for 
greater  things.  An  idol  of  the  hour,  in  some 
ways  suggesting  Richard  Strauss,  tries  in  vain 
to  wreck  his   faith  in  liis  career.     Early  love. 


Romain  Rolland  25 


c])isode.s  follow,  and  after  a  dramatic  climax, 
the  hero,  like  Wagner,  has  to  fly,  a  hopeful 
exile. 

Jeax-Christophe  in-  Paris.    The  Market-Place 

— Antoinette — The   House. 

The  further  adventures  of  the  great  musician 
after  his  exile  to  Paris.  In  "The  Market- 
place" we  see  the  hero  struggling  to  earn  his 
living  and  to  conquer  Paris.  We  are  intro- 
duced to  numberless  "society"  circles  in  Paris, 
and  all  the  cliques  of  so-called  musicians. 
Christo})he's  genius  asserts  itself  and  he  be- 
comes famous.  The  love  story  in  "Antoinette" 
is  perhaps  the  finest  thing  in  any  of  the  three 
books.  The  London  Daily  Mail  says:  "It  is  a 
flawless  gem."  "The  House"  introduces  us  to 
the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  young  musician, 
who  gravitate  around  Christophe  and  his  friend 
Olivier  amid  the  noisy  and  enigmatic  whirl  of 
Parisian  life.  A  war  cloud  rises  between 
France  and  Germany.  The  hero  makes  a  hasty 
trip  to  his   Fatherland. 

Jeax-Christophe:  Jourxey's  Ekd.  Love  and 
Friendship — The  Burning  Bush — The  New 
Dawn. 

This    completes    the   great   trilogy. 

The  first  eighty  pages  are  concerned  chiefly 
with  the  marriage  of  Christophe's  best  friend 
Olivier,  with  Christophe's  rise  as  a  composer 
and  his  love  for  a  Parisian  actress.  Dramatic 
episodes  follow,  and  we  see  Jean-Christophe 
fighting  on  the   barricade  in   Paris,  flying  for 


26  Boohs  on  Music 

his  life  to  Switzerland,  and  there  involved  in 
'an  experience  recalling  Wagner's  with  Fran 
Wesendonck. 

Cloth,  the  set,  $5.00  net;  each  volume  $1.75 
net. 

Leather,  the  set,  $10.00  net;  individual  vol- 
umes not  sold  separately. 

BOOKS  ABOUT  MUSIC  AND  MUSICIANS 

By    ROMAIN    ROLLAND 

In  the  following  books  the  actual  biographi- 
cal material  is  given,  but  there  is  much  more 
than  this.  The  author  is  a  philosopher  and 
an  artist;  and  against  the  background  of  the 
bare  facts  he  shows  a  living  person  and  his 
place  in  the  history  of  music.  His  accounts 
of  the  various  musicians  are  rich  with  criti- 
cisms of  their  work. 

Some  Musiciaxs  or  Former  Days.     Translated 
by  Mary  Blaiklock.    $1.50  net. 

A  rough  sketch  of  the  place  of  music  in 
general  history  opens  the  volume.  Then  fol- 
low chapters  on  the  beginnings  of  opera:  Luigi 
Rossi  and  his  "Orfeo,"  the  first^  opera  played 
in  Paris;  notes  on  Lully,  Gluck,  Gretry, 
Mozart. 

"The  most  interesting  of  contemporaneous 
writers.  Written  with  brilliant  scholarship, 
with  critical  insight  and  with  flashes  of  human 
sympathy  and  humor." — New   York  Sun. 


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Musicians  or  To-dav.  Translated  from  the 
fifth  French  edition  by  Mary  Bi^mklock. 
With   an    Introduction   by   Claude    Laxdi. 

$1.50  net. 

Berlioz's  stormy  career  and  music,  Wagner's 
"Siegfried"  (that  "rare  vision  of  happiness  in 
a  great  tragic  art")  and  "Tristan"  ("more 
religious  perhaps  through  its  sincerity  than 
Parsifal"),  Saint-Saens,  Vincent  D'Indy,  Hugo 
Wolf,  Perosi  (the  priest-composer),  Debussy's 
"Pelleas  and  Melisande,"  "The  "Musical  Move- 
ment in  Paris,"  and  an  absorbing  paper  on  the 
concert  music  of  Richard  Strauss,  etc. 

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as  opposed  to  the  Bayreuth  ideal.  The  Wag- 
ner of  'Siegfried'  and  'Tristan'  is  admirably 
discussed  .  .  .  shrewd  comparisons  between 
the  genius  of  French  music  and  that  of  Ger- 
man. Is  a  remarkable  study  of  the  efforts 
made  by  French  musicians  during  the  last 
forty  years.  A  book  to  be  read  many  times." 
— Philip  Hale  in  the  Boston  Herald. 

Beethovex.  Translated  by  B.  Coxstaxce 
Hull.  With  a  brief  analysis  of  the 
sonatas,  the  s\Tnphonies  and  the  quartettes 
by  A.  Eaglefteld  Hull,  and  twenty-four 
musical  illustrations  by  Edward  Carpenter. 

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Haxdel.     Translation  and  Introduction  by  A. 
Eaglefield   Hull.      With   seventeen   musi- 
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A  work  for  the  first  time,  putting  the  com- 
poser of  "The  Messiah"  into  the  proper  aspect 
not  as  a  preacher,  but  as  an  artist,  who  loved 
his  fellows  and  the  beauty  of  the  world  about 
him.     There  are  also  musical  illustrations,  four 
unusual  pictures  and   an  index. 

"Much  original  criticism  of  the  works  them- 
selves, discerning  and  discriminating,  including 
the  Italian  operas  as  well  as  the  oratorios  and 
the  instrumental  compositions.  Upholds  M. 
Holland's  great  reputation;  .  .  .  sounds  sane 
and  well  balanced ;  a  work  not  only  of  rip« 
scholarship,  but  also  of  the  judicious  apprecia- 
tion."— ISew  York  Times. 

Music  and  Musicians.  By  Albert  I.avigxac. 
Translated  by  William  Marchaxt.  With 
chapters  on  "Music  in  America"  and  "The 
Present  State  of  the  Art  of  Music"  by 
H.  E.  Krehbiel.  With  numerous  illustra- 
tions.   $2.00  net. 

Practically  a  cyclopaedia  of  its  subject. 

The  Rixg  of  the  Nibelungen.  By  G.  T. 
DippoLD.     $1.50  net. 

'The  mythological  basis  is  explained.  Then 
the  stories  of  the  four  music  dramas  are  given, 
with  translations  of  many  passages  and  some 
description  of  the  music, 


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OrR  Fa3iiliaii  Songs  and  Those  Who  Made 
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paniment and  preceded  by  sketches  of  the 
writers  and  histories  of  tlie  songs. 

The  Nibeluxgexlied.  Translated  by  George  H. 
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More   Mastersixgers. 

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"Place  of  Music  in  Modern  Life";  "The 
Musician  as  Composer";  "The  Musician  as 
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Salon";  "The  Old  Age  of  Richard  Wagner"; 
"The  Two  Westminsters";  with  some  thoughts 
on  music   and  religion. 

Some  Forerux'X'ers  of  Italiax-  Opera.  By 
W.  J.  Hex^dersox-^,  musical  critic  of  The 
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30  Boohs  on  Music 

An  account  of  Mediaeval  lyric  drama,  showing 
among  other  things  the  real  artistic  significance 
of  the  birth  of  recitative,  and  leading  up  to 
the  introduction  of  opera  in  the  last  decade 
of  the  sixteenth   century  by  Peri  and  Caccini. 

The  contents  cover  early  "Liturgical  Drama," 
the  "Sacre  Rappresentazioni,"  "Birthplace  of 
the  Secular  Drama,"  "The  Artistic  Impulse," 
"Poliziano's  'Favola  di  Orfeo' "  (five  chapters 
covering  the  work,  the  performance,  music, 
solos  and  orchestra),  "Frottola  Drama  to  Ma- 
drigal," "Preponderance  of  the  Spectacular," 
"Influence  of  the  Taste  for  Comedy,"  "Vecchi 
and  the  Matured  Madrigal  Drama,"  the  "Spec- 
tacular Element  in  Music"  and  the  "Medium 
for  Individual  Utterance." 

Chapters  of  Opera.  By  Hexry  Edward  Kreh- 
BiEL,  musical  critic  of  the  Neio  York 
Tribune,  author  of  "Music  and  Manners  in 
the  Classical  Period,"  "Studies  in  the  Wag- 
nerian Drama,"  "How  to  IJsten  to  Music," 
etc.,  with  over  seventy  portraits  and  pic- 
tures of  opera  houses. 

$3.00  net. 

The   Wixd   Band  and   Its   Instruments.     By 
Artiit'r  Clappe, 
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